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Friday, April 22, 2011

Having a small house you really have to think about storage solutions and your use of colors and furniture. I know that light colors are supposed to make things look larger but I've also read that you shouldn't be afraid to use bold colors on your walls because in some cases that can make rooms appear larger. It's all a bit confusing so I've just been trying different things and seeing what works. If you've been following our blog you may have noticed that we are not afraid of bold colors on the walls! I'm not sure if it's made the rooms look smaller but it has added some fun to our decor. So I guess that's another consideration .............. if it makes you happy then that's what really matters :o)

Anyway back to the point of this post. We were given a couple of oak bookcases when we first moved into our house. I have had this dream of having a library full of books, bookshelves from the floor to the ceiling, so I have the beginnings of a book collection that needed a home. So with Brian's help I decided to paint the bookcases a chocolate brown. We thought the color would look nice and they would also contrast nicely with the light blue of the guest bedroom where we would put them.

We liked the color but the size and placement just wasn't working. We had put them right next to one another on the wall by the door so it made things feel a bit cramped when entering the room. I tried moving them to a wall across the room from the doorway on either side of a window but that still didn't work so well. I next thought maybe if they were a lighter color that would help things out a bit so I got to painting and covered up the brown with white.

But I couldn't stop there so I decided to paint stripes on the back! I talked with Brian about color options, I was debating a light cream, tan, light blue or yellow. Brian thought the blue would be nice so I got to work measuring out 2 inch sections on the bookcase back and applying tape to mark-off the areas to be left unpainted.

I noticed when I was putting on the tape that there was a small stripe between the two pieces of tape.

I'm not sure if my measuring was a bit off or the tape is slightly narrow than 1 inch but the extra stripe worked for me ........ now my stripes would be ticking stripes!

Next I got to work applying two coats of blue paint I already had, Martha Stewart's "Enamelware" that I had already used for the magazine rack. It is slightly lighter than the blue of the walls.

And when it finally dried I was able to peel-off the tape and see what I had done. The "Frog Tape" I used worked wonders, there was no seep-through along the edges of the tape! Don't you hate when you have finished painting and excitedly peel-off the tape only to reveal the paint had seeped under the tape, ugh!

Here's a closer view of the stripes:

And then I put the shelves back in, and I had a brand new bookcase. Isn't it cute!

A little closer view:

And no bookcase is complete without books, so I got to work filling it up.

The stripes aren't as visible with all the books, but they are still there:

And here:

I had to include a picture with my favorite book, "To Kill a Mockingbird". Bailey's middle name is Atticus after the father character in the book :o)

Now I have the other bookcase left to paint. We hope to one day make our own taller bookcases to form a little cubby flanking the window and the bed in the guest room. Another thing to put on our to-do list :o)

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Thanks Cassie! I really love your blog too! I just figured out why the tiny stripe in the middle arose when I went to buy more tape. The "Frog Tape" is sold in .94" not a whole 1" so that little bit of extra space gave me the center stripe. Funny how things work out that way sometimes!Linda :o)

Thanks Everyone! Yeah, two coats of paint was a pain but after one coat the stripes were a bit streaky so I knew that would bug me forever unless I did another coat :o) The biggest pain is that I have two bookcases! I've been working the last few days on getting the other one done. I'll post more pics of how the room is coming together when I FINALLY finish! :o)

That's a pretty nice idea because you will see your loads of books as you wake up. It's going to remind you of the beautiful stories you got from those books. If it's too much though, I suggest you keep them at the storage services in Perth because it's going to be safe in there.